duckweed?

[ohiogoatgirl]

anyone feed duckweed to their rabbits?
i was just looking into it for feeding quail. coturnix quail are going to be my next project and they need high protien feed so i was looking into growing duckweed.
anyway... i saw a few asides that said as pig, cow, poultry, and rabbit feed. it can be fed dried or just strained from the pond (or growing area) and fed out.

anyone heard of anyone feeding it to their rabbits?

 

[Secuono]

Heard of it, but other than a snack, it's not practical. Unless you have a 2acre wild pond just smothered in it...

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

hm... supposedly it can grow to double its amount in 24-48 hours... *shrugs*

 

[OneAcreFarm]

hm... supposedly it can grow to double its amount in 24-48 hours... *shrugs*

Duckweed is very small, it would take extremely large amounts of it to use as a reliable food source.

 

[Secuono]

Yup, millimeters. The stuff is crazy, aquarium people take extreme measures to contain it, eradicate it or whenever having to deal with it...
Terrible stuff, you'll find it on your elbow days later...

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

i was thinking of growing it for quail, as they need high protien in their diet. and as i would only have about 20 at most (i think haha) then it wouldnt be too much needed for them.
feeding it to the rabbits was an afterthought.
i dont know how much i would be able to grow, space wise. if i try to grow it then i will be growing it in things that i already have. like 50gal drum sawed off bottom, etc. though i am wondering if i might be able to set up a small sort of "raised bed" sort of thing and put black plastic in it and grow it in that.

oh! lookie there! at the bottom of the page i see "similar topics: duckweed" *slapface* haha topic7982.html

 

[hoodat]

Be careful if you gather it from wild ponds. If there are snails in the pond you could introduce liver flukes with it (snails are an intermediate host to liver fluke).

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

i will be buying it if i try to grow it.
good to know though about snails.

 

[GBov]

You can grow it in kiddy wadding pools and they are about to go on sale with Fall aproaching.

Or in five gallon buckets.

I have LOTS of it but never thought to feed it to anything.

Be sure to keep mosquito fish in the buckets or pools as well or you will be growing LOTS of those as well as duckweed.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

i was thinking to have goildfish in my "pond(s)". because they are small and could probably survive on the duckweed without eating it all and they would fertilize the duckweed a bit.

 

[3mina]

Goldfish eat a lot and they grow a lot, they'll keep your duckweed in check and you'll have carp big enough to pan fry in short order.